How close to the real thing?

We have a Steinway. You guys are exaggerating. I'm guessing none of you have ever recorded your own piano and replayed the recording on your system? If you're using a recording made in a huge venue it won't sound as dramatic. Also, have you used a sound meter at a given distance to see if you're playing the recording at a similar volume? If you haven't, you'd be shocked at how loud a live piano is. If you're using speakers like Thiels, or something else with limited cone area, forget it.

Somehow my original question: Are we making progress and how close are we? has prompted people to write things like "my stereo will never sound like my piano." Though I don't know how we could ever presume to know something with such certainty about the future, I do tend to agree with the sentiment. Even under the best of circumstances, I've never been really fooled, but I'm still wondering if the industry is making progress.

I had a gentleman over the other evening to hear my system. He explained that he has gone full circle in this hobby and after 50 or so years of owning many of the latest designs, he has ended up with a system that is very similar to what he had thirty years ago - very high efficiency cone/horn speakers (Altec), a vintage tube integrated amp (modified Heathkit) and a Japanese DD table (Technics). Sensing his excitement while describing his system, I think he likes his current system as much as anything he has owned. He emphasized the sense of dynamics as being very lifelike. So I ask, have we really advanced the state of the art in say the last 30 years?

Regarding how close we are to the real thing, let's forget percentages. That was a futile suggestion. How about something like this:

1. The best system I've heard sounds absolutely nothing like a real piano.
2. The best system I've heard allows me to recognize that it is in fact a recording of a piano.
3. The best system I've heard sometimes sounds a bit like a real piano.
4. The best system I've heard sounds pretty much like a real piano.

Judging from the responses to this thread, I think there is little consensus. Perhaps we should leave it at that and go and enjoy our systems.

Happy Holidays!!!!

I'll go out on a limb and say I think my system is up to the task about as well as anything I have heard in a home system.

Anybody have a grand piano I can borrow to check for sure?

I feel about as good about it as I can having heard a lot of pianos over the years but not actually owning one currently to compare.